Next year, Teona Williams ’12 will travel to India, South Africa, Trinidad, Tobago, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Brazil, studying the connections between people and nature.

She has won a prestigious Watson Fellowship, which gives talented graduating seniors $25,000 and a mandate not to step foot in the United States for one year.

Williams is organizing her Watson year around an environmental theme — partly for intellectual reasons and partly from personal ones. She already has an academic grounding in these areas: She’s majoring in environmental studies and history and minoring in Africana studies. Her senior-year independent study consists of looking at the history of access to national parks in America, asking why the federal government maintained segregation in these areas through the 1940s. In her sophomore year, Williams received a two-year Mellon Mays undergraduate fellowship, which supports promising future scholars who can broaden the intellectual and cultural diversity of university and college faculties.

Personally, nature plays a therapeutic role for her. She says being in nature helps her process her life, make decisions and build confidence and security in those decisions. “Nature has been a significant part of the person I am today,” she explains.

Williams’ Path to Nature

Williams grew up in southeast Washington D.C., and didn’t pay much attention to nature until she was 16, when, as part of her high school curriculum, she volunteered at a local park near the Anacostia River. She credits Bowdoin for deepening her connection to the outdoors.

“It was not until Bowdoin that my passion for the outdoors was nurtured. I was involved in OZLT, or Out of the Zone Leadership Training. It is a program funded by a Bowdoin alum and ran by the Outing Club, geared at getting a more diverse crowd involved with the BOC. It really challenged me to push myself out of my comfort zone and try a variety of outdoor activities that I never experienced before. It taught me that experiencing new things is pivotal to my education, and that I can lead trips outdoors, which seems simple, but it was something that NEVER crossed my mind before!

Also, as an environmental studies major, I received the opportunity to intern with the Nature Conservancy in Maine. That summer really changed my life. Not only did I get a chance to make a difference, but I also went camping for the first time. I had to learn how to pitch a tent and how to spice up camp food. I remember spending one night getting emotional over the fact that I was sleeping under the stars. It was life altering.”

Teona Williams ’12

Because of her own attachment to nature, Williams says she has become curious how other people in other cultures interact with the natural world for pleasure. “For my Watson, I want to understand who has access to playing in nature, and how socioeconomics, ethnicity, and gender impact this access,” she writes in her grant proposal.

She says she first noticed a divide between the ways visitors and locals experience the outdoors during her semester abroad in Kenya last year. “I went snorkeling, the first time in my life,” she says. “And I saw a stark contrast. The local people were doing one thing, and the tourists another.”

Wanting to explore this contrast further, Williams planned her year of travel to visit developing countries with a mixture of social classes that also had “breathtaking landscapes.” The nations she will visit have also all experienced colonialism, and so have been exposed to Western values, including, perhaps, the Western perception of nature.

She says she will conduct many interviews, asking people questions such as, “Do you play in nature? If not, why not? If so why? Do you have a tradition that is based on being outside? How often do you get outside? What are your experiences in beautiful spaces? Can you share a story about an enjoyable experience you had while outside?”

Williams has already contacted ecotourism organizations and national parks to connect with them while she’s traveling through the countries she visits. The organizations are ones “trying to encourage more local people to engage in environmental issues,” she says, and by visiting the parks, she’ll be able to determine who’s visiting them.

Because $25,000 is not an enormous sum to cover 12 months of travel, Williams says she has to budget carefully, and is hoping to plan homestays to live with local families. “I won’t be staying at five-star hotels!” she points out.

After spending the summer in Washington D.C. with her father, who, Williams says, is a bit nervous about her long trip, she’ll take off for India in August. These days she’s busy planning the details of her year of travel, but when she first heard she had won the Watson Fellowship, she says she was flabbergasted.

“I didn’t think I was going to win. There were a lot of amazing proposals,” she says. “I was so shocked. When I heard, I dropped to my knees and started crying. It’s so amazing.”

Comments

The Nature Conservancy loves you Teona – this is a well deserved award for one of Bowdoin’s finest. We stand ready to help you make some great connections in many of the places you plan to travel next year. And thank you to Bowdoin, Psi U and the Logan Family for their continued commitment to placing students with the Conservancy for the summer.

Congratulations on your award! Allow me to reconfirm Kate’s offer of assistance for your trip. TNC has offices with great people in most of the countries you are visiting. And of course in DC (Arlington) where I am based. Let me know how I can help!

Congratulations, Teona!! I’m sure you are already expecting this experience to change your life but as a past Watson Fellow (’02-’03), I can tell you, you can’t imagine what’s in store for you. I’m so proud of you: Of your impact on Bowdoin and on the courageous steps you’ve already taken to get where you are. The world is yours for the taking, never doubt yourself. That’s my best advice but please shoot me an email any time before, during, or after your trip. Look me up in the Watson Alumni on their website! I’d love to be in touch to offer any support, guidance and/or encouragement that I can! :) YAY for you and for Bowdoin!

My wife, Cindy and I met you very briefly at the conservancy last year (after a very long walk in which we got a bit lost). Both of us were impressed with how friendly and personable you were. Cindy said “that girl will probably go far in life.” Indeed – it’s nice to see her prophesy come true!

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